Rookie LAPD officer’s whereabouts unknown after deadly shooting

A rookie Los Angeles police officer was being sought on Monday as a person of interest in the fatal Southern California shooting of another man in the bar district in Pomona, local authorities said.

Henry Solis was off-duty on Friday morning when gunfire killed 23-year-old Salome Rodriguez, Jr. in Pomona, 30 miles east of Los Angeles, the Pomona Police Department said in a statement on Sunday.

A 27-year-old probationary officer assigned to the Devonshire Division in the San Fernando Valley, Solis later failed to show up for work on Saturday following the shooting, and his car was found on Sunday abandoned near the scene.

“Solis’ whereabouts is unknown, and we have reason to believe that he knows the police are looking to talk with him,” the statement said.

Solis had no record of disciplinary action against him since joining the Los Angeles Police Department last June, said Los Angeles police spokeswoman Officer Rosario Herrera.

“We’re assisting the Pomona Police Department in the investigation,” Herrera said on Monday.

On Friday morning, officers responding to multiple calls of gunshots found Rodriguez suffering at least one bullet wound to his abdomen, according to Pomona police. He later was pronounced dead at the hospital.

A preliminary investigation found that Rodriguez and another man “were engaged in a physical altercation” just before the shooting,” the police said in the statement. “It is unknown if the suspect and the victim knew each other.”